FROM THE DEEP SOUTH: THE SEC REPORT

BY NEIL BISMAN
SEC INSIDER

All twelve teams in the SEC were in action for the opening weekend of the season and they have only two losses to show for it. Unfortunately, for the conference, two of those losses were on television and they were not pretty. A third team who won in the national spotlight, made things a lot harder on themselves than it should have been.

-LSU may have gotten off to a slow start in their romp over Mississippi State but talk of them not looking very impressive are a little premature. The team was breaking in a new quarterback, a new offensive coordinator and had to deal with some bad weather. Add all of that together and suddenly hanging 45 points on the road doesn’t look too bad, even if it was over Mississippi State.

-Speaking of Mississippi State, perhaps it wasn’t in their best interest to wear white at home and force LSU to wear purple instead of their traditional white jerseys. Sometimes its best to let sleeping dogs, or in this case sleeping Tigers, lie.

-Florida picked up right from where they left off a season ago with a 49-3 rout of Western Kentucky in a contest shortened due to lightning. The young Gators’ defense looked shaky at times but that’s to be expected at this point of the season. Luckily for them, the offense looked to be in midseason form because this team is going to have to win quite a few shootouts if they hope to repeat as SEC Champions let alone National Champions.

-Alabama looked impressive in Nick Saban’s debut but they are going to need a lot more than they got out of John Parker Wilson if they hope to be playing in Atlanta on the first weekend of December. On the bright side, at least he didn’t look as bad as the Western Carolina helmets. It’s never a good sign when your logo matches that of a Broadway play.

-The Gamecock faithful had better hope that Blake Mitchell does not miss any more time because the South Carolina offense really struggled to get off the ground without him. Good thing this game was against a school from Lafayette, Louisiana and not Baton Rouge, Louisiana or else it may have gotten ugly.

-Earl Bennett continues to put up numbers normally seen in a video game. It may have been against Richmond but Vanderbilt looked impressive in the blowout victory as they look to make their first Bowl appearance since 1982. They are going to need a lot more though out of their running backs if they hope to make that dream a reality.

-A huge win for Ole Miss this past weekend on the road against Memphis. With the exception of a blowout loss at Arkansas, Mississippi played extremely competitive football down the stretch last season and should be able to build on some of that momentum. A win at home against up-and-coming Missouri next week could be just what this team needs to propel itself out of the SEC cellar. For that to happen though, they are going to need a much better performance out of BenJarvus Green-Ellis than the one they got in Memphis.

-Perhaps the most impressive performance of the week for the conference took place in Athens when the Georgia Bulldogs rolled over the Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Cowboys were a very trendy upset pick due to their high-octane offense but the Georgia defense did a tremendous job of shutting them down. Matthew Stafford continues play beyond his years and this Bulldog team may have a lot more bite than people give them credit for.

-The Kentucky offense looks extremely impressive with their three-headed monster of quarterback Andre Woodson, running back Rafael Little and wide receiver Keenan Burton but they need to get more out of their defense if they hope to replicate last season’s win total of eight. The defense did not look all that bad against in-state opponent Eastern Kentucky but that effort won’t cut it against in-state rival Louisville.

-Darren McFadden and Felix Jones continue to look like the best backfield in America but Casey Dick’s 11-of-20 effort against Troy, is not going to get the job done against conference opponents. Dick was without his favorite target in Marcus Monk but there is no guarantee that Monk will be back for the Hogs’ September 15 trip to Alabama. Houston Nutt and company had better have a Plan B.

-There is no truth to the rumor that Brandon Cox was injured during the typing of this SEC report but it would not be much of a surprise. The injury-plagued quarterback looked rather unimpressive and running back Ben Tate looked rather pedestrian filling in for the suspended Brad Lester. It wasn’t pretty but Auburn did prevail in the end over a young Kansas State team. K-State may be pesky, but what will Auburn do when they get an even peskier South Florida at Jordan-Hare Stadium this Saturday?

-Last and certainly least are the Tennessee Volunteers who apparently forgot to pack their defense for the trip to Berkeley, California. Cal deserves a lot of credit as they are an extremely fast and extremely talented football team but Tennessee looked flat-out terrible. The offense was able to expose an equally weak Bears defense and Erik Ainge did not appear to miss a beat with his broken pinky but the poor defense was just too much to overcome. If you feel something warm in Knoxville that isn’t one last summer heat wave, that would be the seat of one Phillip Fulmer.

Overall, a good week for the conference in terms of victories but many teams do have their problems. That’s what early-season cupcakes on the schedule are for; better to sort out the issues now than during the grind that is conference play.
Ala